World No.10, the Hungarian Hurkacz dismissed the Australian Kyrgios in three sets this Friday, in the quarterfinals of the Quebec Masters 1000.
End of series in Montreal for the fit man of the summer: Nick Kyrgios, physically impaired, conceded Friday his first defeat in ten matches against the solid Hubert Hurkacz who will meet Casper Ruud in the semi-finals of the Masters 1000.
Euphoric for two months, as evidenced by the fifteen successes he had just garnered in sixteen matches – including his lost final at Wimbledon and his title won last weekend at the Washington tournament, which put an end to three years of scarcity – the Australian had run out of gas. “My body was not feeling very well already last week. There I felt some pain in the abdominal muscle before the match. And during, my knees were sore, my back was sore… I was trying to keep moving, but I stiffened“Explained the 37th in the world.
He lost 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (5/7), 6-1 against the 25-year-old Pole, revealed last year by his semi-final at Wimbledon, after his victory at Miami Masters 1000, and who had beaten him in June for their first confrontation in the semi-finals of the Halle grass tournament. The first two sets were very tight, the aces paraded (39 in total), the games too, to the point that neither player could break the other. Hurkacz was the most solid, especially in defense, in the first decisive game to pocket the first set.
I am not a machine, I am a human being.
Nick Kyrgios
Kyrgios, who often appeared nonchalant in this match and unusually calm, although with his back to the wall, pulled out all the stops in the second tie-break, helped in particular by the net boards to escape 4-2, after a superb series of amortizations and counter-amortizations. Whereupon, Hurkacz went to the locker room to change, which annoyed the Australian, whose momentum thus stopped weakened him a little more physically, to the point of collapsing in the 3rd set. “When you play and stop for five to ten minutes, it does not help your body“, he regretted.
«It’s in the rules, I’m not going to complain. But after that, my body was so stiff, I couldn’t move properly. I am not a machine, I am a human being“, Added the one who should be part of the seeds at the US Open (August 29-September 11), taking into account the points collected in Canada, before others to win next week at the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati. “That’s what I’m focusing on now. I feel good, I’m confident. I’m going to have three or four days off. I’ll use that, really capitalize and just rest and recoverKyrgios said.
Playing against him is very challenging, but also fun.
Hubert Hurkacz
For his part, Hurkacz, saluting his rival who “played amazing over the past two months“, congratulated himself on having emerged victorious “of a really difficult match». «Playing against him is very challenging, but also fun. Nick is a great opponent. He can hit all his shots. He doesn’t really have any weaknesses, if any. I was just trying to serve well and stay aggressive“, added the one who reached the last four for the first time at the Canada Open.
In search of a sixth title on the circuit, he will face in the next round Casper Ruud (N.7), the highest ranked player in the table since the premature eliminations of Daniil Medvedev, Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas, and for whom the matches are follow and are not alike in Canada. The day after his hard-fought victory, in more than three hours, at the expense of the Spaniard Roberto Bautista, the Norwegian, finalist of the last Roland-Garros and who is seeking a fourth title in 2022, was very impressive, for get rid 6-1, 6-2 of the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime (N.9).
The other two quarter-finals pit Spaniard Pablo Carreno (N.23) against Briton Jack Draper (N.82) and Briton Daniel Evans (N.39) against American Tommy Paul (N.34), four players not seeded.
